16Jul 2014 by CJ

What makes a successful life has more to do with what you can’t see

Generosity & Kindness, Life & Living, Love & Relationships
It’s been three weeks since my wife and I permanently moved from New Jersey to Colorado. Man time goes fast! While the transition has been difficult and searching for new employment has been challenging, I’m starting to realize that I’ve been afforded a rather rare gift in life – the gift of time. Time to share ordinary, everyday moments with my beautiful wife and time to refocus my priorities for the next chapter in my life. Something I’ve been thinking a great deal about lately has been the word success. Webster defines success as “The fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect or fame; the correct or desired result of an attempt.” So many of us, myself included, spend so much of our time misguided by the word “success” and…
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17Jun 2014 by CJ

Home is not a place, but a series of moment you take with you

Love & Relationships
Almost twelve years ago to the day, my wife and I moved into our first house - a traditional, side-hall colonial from the mid 1920’s. While beginning your career or solidifying your relationship with the exchange of vows certainly qualifies as being a full-fledged adult, I feel that buying your first home is tops on the list. Beyond the financial burden, it’s a huge personal responsibility that really doesn’t come with a foolproof handbook, no matter what the experts might say. You learn as you go – from the mistakes and the successes – allowing you the esteemed title of “homeowner” that so many of us take pride in. I remember my wife and I practically LIVED on Chips Ahoy sandwich cookies with Oreo cream inside for the first few…
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11Jun 2014 by CJ

Do you put relationships on your to-do-lists?

Life & Living, Love & Relationships
Take a look at your life and ask yourself, what’s on my to-do-list? Our lives are often filled to capacity with an excess of errands, chores and commitments – pulling us in different directions and robbing us of the more memorable moments life has to offer. We prioritize our lives based upon what we believe to be important and inadvertently forget about the people we always assume will be around when our to-do-lists are finally complete. It’s funny how our lists seem to focus so much on taking care of responsibilities, yet pay little attention to taking care of the people who provide our lives with infinite meaning. Imagine turning off all the distractions of life to interact with that special someone who’s been sitting right next to, yet somehow…
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10Jun 2014 by CJ

Believing our struggles are worse than everyone else’s

Life & Living, Love & Relationships, Youth
Morning commutes are often long and tedious – a direct result of overpopulation and continual construction projects being undertaken on our heavily traveled roadways. One Friday morning I was running incredibly late, and as you might expect in this situation, highway traffic was at a standstill. My patience was already wearing incredibly thin and it wasn’t even nine o’clock in the morning! To help maintain some sanity, I decided to exit the highway and navigate through back roads and side streets in the hopes of avoiding any more congestion. Within minutes, I was relieved to again see the needle on my speedometer approaching 35 miles per hour. But it didn’t take long for my morning commute to again come to a screeching halt. This time I found myself stuck behind…
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